The Black Band
by NegativeCWD
Summary: As the Eridani Light Horse prepares to return to the Innere Sphere, Sandra Barclay reflects on the ELH's history of sorrow. (One-shot)


**DropShip SLS _Marion_**

**Docked with JumpShip SLS _Circe_**

**Unnamed Star System Baker 52-A.**

**May 12, 3068**

            _Sandra,_

_It looks like they've sold us out.  There's no other way to say it.  I feel like I should have seen it coming, but I didn't._

_Get your people out of there, Sandra, fast.  It won't be long until the Clanners catch wind of this, and when they do we both know Huntress won't be a safe place for the Light Horse or anyone else from the Inner Sphere.  Bring your people home and we'll try to figure out what to do next.  They aren't talking about kicking us off Dieron just yet, although I'm sure it won't be long._

_Sorry for the pathetic attempt at dark humor._

_                                                            -Edwin_

            Colonel Sandra Barclay had lost count of how many times she had read the message from her commanding officer.  But the tears came every time.

She didn't know why she kept reading it again and again, either.  In the few moments when she had actually felt inclined to analyze it, she had reached the hazy conclusion that she was using the message as a banner, a rallying point.  She knew it was strange that, more than anything else, it was that brief message in which she found motivation, the strength to go on.  She didn't bother to analyze that.

She squeezed her eyes shut against the tears and became aware that the _Circe_ had jumped.  She had taken no conscious notice of the momentary distortion in reality as the _Invader_-class JumpShip's drives had almost instantaneously propelled it across thirty light-years of space. 

This jump had brought none of the weakness and nausea that had plagued her all of her life.  Her TDS seemed to have mysteriously disappeared over the past few months.  She would have gladly traded it for the constant, vague sick feeling that now permeated her existence.

The intercom on the wall of her room buzzed, sounding quieter than usual, as though it were afraid to disturb her.  It required attention nonetheless.  She touched the control on her desk to answer.  "Barclay here," she said, swallowing against the lump in her throat.

"We've arrived, Colonel," said the voice of Captain Jason Lachance, the _Circe_'s commanding officer.  "Deploying CAP."

"I'll be there in a couple minutes," she told him.  She switched the comm off and took one final look at Ed Amis' personal message to her, which had come attached to his official orders to the Seventy-First Light Horse Regiment months before.  Forcing herself to take her eyes off the glowing text, she shut down her computer, got up, and headed for the door.

            Sandra grabbed one of the handholds that lined the walls, floor and ceiling of this and every other corridor in the _Circe_, taking advantage of the barely-present gravity on board the ship and using the handhold to propel herself along the hall faster.  Ahead was the door to the _Circe's _bridge, and emblazoned across its two interlocking metal halves was the Eridani Light Horse's insignia. 

            In defiance of all opthamological knowledge, Sandra's gaze was drawn not to the prancing black horse that filled the center of the emblem, but to its border.  A thick black border that the horse blended into at the hooves, head and tail rimmed the circular golden field.  She was reminded once again of the ebony band that she and the guards flanking the door on either side wore on their right upper arms.

            Both bands, the one on the sigil and the ones they wore, represented sorrow.

            The dark border had first been added to the ELH insignia early in the unit's history, in mourning for the fall of their home, the first Star League.  Since the League had been reformed in the late 3050s in response to the Clan menace, the border had come to symbolize the death of so many Light Horse members in action against Clan Smoke Jaguar on Huntress.

            Now the League was gone again, and the black band continued to serve its purpose, memorializing yet another great loss.

            Sandra returned the salutes of the two guards, who did an admirable job of snapping to attention considering the reduced gravity, and passed through the door without slowing.  A crewman snapped, "Officer on deck!" and the rest of the bridge crew paused in their work to acknowledge Sandra's arrival.  They knew without looking who had arrived.  Captain Lachance was already present, and there was only one officer who ranked higher on the ship.

            She exchanged another salute with Captain Lachance, who then turned to the large holo-screen in the center of the bridge.  The _Circe_ lacked the three dimension holo-tanks that WarShips and some newer JumpShips were equipped with, but the screen was more than sufficient to show the disposition of the Light Horse task force spread out around the flagship at the jump point.

            The system designated Baker 52-A was totally uninhabited, as none of the six planets that orbited its gas giant star were capable of supporting life.  ComStar's Explorer Corps had discovered it many years before, and more recently had been chosen as a possible waypoint for Task Force Serpent's journey to the Clan home worlds.  It had never been used as such, though, and had been forgotten since then.  Or at least, the Light Horse was hoping it had.

            Baker 52-A had been selected as the rendezvous point for the Seventy-First and 151st Light Horse.  When the Star League had dissolved in late 3067, the 151st had already been on their way to the Kerensky Cluster to take over the Seventy-First's garrison at the Star League outpost on Huntress.  Before the HPG communications net along the Exodus Road had gone down, Sandra and Colonel Charles Antonescu had arranged for their units to link up here, hoping that it would go unnoticed while possible ambushers might wait at the other waypoints along the Road. 

            So far, their hopes seemed to have been fulfilled.  No hostile force had awaited them at the System's Nadir jump point.  But Sandra still felt a sense of foreboding, as she had many times over the past months.  She frowned and shook her head tightly.  _I will not be afraid again._  She had beaten her inner demons before, on Huntress.  She would not let them take the second round. 

            An insistent beeping sound rose above the noise generated by the various systems on the bridge.  "Incoming vessels, Sirs," said a tech, glancing back and forth between Sandra and Lachance and his display.  "Lots of them."

            Sandra's heart jumped into her throat.  There was no logical way anyone could have known when the Seventy-First would jump into the system, even if they knew what the rendezvous point was in the first place.  Was there?  _Calm down, Sandra,_ she told herself.  Tense moments passed as she tried to loosen her grip on the bridge rail, which was far tighter than was necessary to stay stationary in the reduced gravity.

            "Incoming transmission," another tech said.  "Sirs, it's the 151st!"

            There was a moment of shocked quiet before the announcement elicted a cheer from the rest of the bridge crew.  Sandra found herself breathing an involuntary sigh of relief, and hoped no one noticed. 

            "Amazing," Captain Lachance said.  "We never were able to arrange a target link-up date, but here they are, only a few minutes after us."

            Sandra smiled.  "A happy coincidence," she commented, as the bridge crew went about establishing further communications with the Seventy-First's sister Light Horse regiment.  _May it be the first of many for us,_ she thought.  _And the beginning of a long run of bad luck for the Word of Blake._ 


End file.
